Astronomy pictures thread

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allSky Camera 08-11-2024 Clouds, Stars, Aircraft, Satellites, Meteorites and Green Aurora.

I could not post this to X, said I have a 5 meg limit.

This was absolutely stunning. You guys are amazing.
 
Here is a composite of Perseid meteors that I captured the night of 8/12-8/13.

Also visible is a conjunction of Jupiter and Mars in the upper left of the image.


Camera: Canon EOS 850D (modified)
Lens: 24mm f/1.4 sigma
Exposure: Multiple 5sec exposures at f/1.4 and ISO 3200
 
Looking forward to this.

From spacex.com:
 
Awesome image. In contrast, my shot of the sun was a single hand held shot with just a white light filter. I had a lot of yard work to do today so that's what I could fit in.

I hope you heal quickly.
 
13 years ago today I captured this image of The Bubble Nebula along with the Cassiopeia Salt-andPepper Cluster. I decided to re-process it this morning with modern tools I did not have at the time (BlurXterminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXterminator).

Original


Re-process:

Date: 8/25/2011
Camera: Canon EOS-20D modified
Telescope: 110mm f/7 ED refractor (orion)
Exposure: 150x2min (5hr total) at ISO 800
About: The bubble nebula lies about 11,000 light years away in theconstellation Cassiopeia
 
Huge improvement. Excellent study on the progress that processing has made.
 
Huge improvement. Excellent study on the progress that processing has made.
Thanks! I was surprised how bad the data was on this one before processing. Terrible "walking noise" and very bad gradient (poor flat frame technique). Itching to get some new data when weather allows. It's been too long.
 
I managed to capture quite a few red sprites last night. Sprites are an upper atmosphere phenomena that occur over some very powerful lightning strikes.

These are 3 of my favorite frames taken from video.






Camera: Sony A7s III
Lens: Sigma 35mm f/1.4 art lens
Exposure: 1/60sec at f/1.4 and ISO 128000
 
Eric I'm assuming the lightening was in the distance, with no clouds?
 
In this case I could see some of the lightning and storm clouds in the distance. The storm was about 50 miles away. The storm was very large so many of the sprites could have been from strikes further away than that.

My general rule is to try for sprites when I can see stars above a distant storm. Usually can at least see lightning flashes in the direction.

Here is a frame with a little more context. As the storm got further away I was able to pan down without losing sprites at the top of the frame.

 
By the way, last night was insane. I thought I was going to catch up on sleep. Joke was on me. The sky erupted with aurora so I stayed up until 2am when fog rolled in.

Hopefully I get some rest tonight. Looks like we're in for a round of severe storms tomorrow.

 
A couple images from last night.


Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Lens: 15mm f/2.8 sigma
Exposure: 20sec at ISO 400 and f/2.8


Camera: Canon EOS 850D (modified)
Lens: 24mm f/1.4 sigma art
Exposure: 2sec at ISO 3200 and f/1.4
 
^^^ I'd be tempted to kill for those temps. lol
I hear you, but you gotta realize the dewpoint much of this summer here almost matches the temperature. So let's say it's 74 where you're at. How do you feel when the dewpoint is 72? Just saying.
This forecast is nice reprieve though.
 
I hear you, but you gotta realize the dewpoint much of this summer here almost matches the temperature. So let's say it's 74 where you're at. How do you feel when the dewpoint is 72? Just saying.
This forecast is nice reprieve though.
Yea, it's a lot drier here, but I'd still like some cool night time temps. It's not gotten below 82 at night for at least two whole Months.
 
Finally a telescope night last night and it looks like the next 2 or three nights could be telescope nights as well. I'll be leaving the telescope outside with a cover for easy setup.

West Veil Nebula (NGC6960) - Supernova Remnant in Cygnus

Date: 8/30/2024
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Telescope: 92mm f/5.5 triplet (Astrotech AT92) with focal reducer
Exposure: 59x300sec (4hr 55min total) at ISO 400
Acquired using BackyardEOS, stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXterminator, StarXTerminator
 
Last night.

M27 (The Dumbell Nebula) - Planetary Nebula in Vulpecula


Cropped to show detail

Date: 8/31/2024
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Telescope: 92mm f/5.5 triplet (Astrotech AT92) with focal reducer
Exposure: 63x300 (5hr, 15min total) at ISO 400
Acquired using BackyardEOS, stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXterminator, StarXTerminator

 
3rd telescope night in a row. Having this line up with a new moon and a 3 day weekend is crazy.

I went for a faint lesser known nebula since the sky was exceptionally clear.

NGC6820/NGC6823/Sh 2-86 - Star Cluster, Emission and Reflection nebula in Vulpecula


Cropped to show detail

Date: 9/1/2024
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Telescope: 92mm f/5.5 triplet (Astrotech AT92) with focal reducer
Exposure: 59x300sec (4hr 55min total) at ISO 400
Acquired using BackyardEOS, stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXterminator, StarXTerminator
 
Very nice work. One of these days I'll have to get that device and give spectroscopy a try. Seems a little more in reach than when I was researching it 20+ years ago.
 
Last night was my 4th telescope night in a row. It has been a very long time since I have had a stretch like that.

East Veil Nebula (NGC6992) - Supernova Remnant in Cygnus


Crop to show detail

Date:
9/2/2024
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Telescope: 92mm f/5.5 triplet (Astrotech AT92) with focal reducer
Exposure: 47x300sec (3hr 55min total) at ISO 400
Acquired using BackyardEOS, stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXterminator, StarXTerminator
 
Just beautiful material. You guys keep delivering. Many thanks!
 
Speaking of the moon, there is going to be a partial lunar eclipse tomorrow night.

Looks like weather might cooperate here and not only that, there is predicted to be a Tiangong (Chinese space station) lunar transit from my location about 10 minutes after the end of penumbral eclipse so I'll probably try and catch that if I can stay awake for it.

Details of the lunar eclipse here:
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2024-september-18
 
Okay telescope is capturing the moon. Something wacky about my alignment but after a few attempts to correct I'm just living with the fact I will have to re-point the scope every 30 min or so. I can't wait to get a new mount some day. The Atlas EQ-G is great once it's perfectly aligned but getting there turns my hair gray.
 
Tiangong Lunar Transit last night.

I had something other than Earth's shadow cross the moon last night. From my location Tiangong (The Chinese Space Station) crossed in front of the moon.


Crop to show detail

Date: 9/17/2024
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i
Telescope: 110mm f/7 ED refractor (Orion)
Exposure: 1/4000sec at ISO 800
 
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